S. Korea hailed as content provider with ‘All of Us Are Dead’

South Korea has been “cementing its status as the hottest supplier of local content,” according to U.S. movie news magazine Deadline on Saturday.

South Korean drama series “All of Us Are Dead” on Netflix has stayed on top across the globe, garnering acclaims among overseas fans. As of Sunday, it ranked no. 1 among Netflix TV dramas for 8 consecutive days from Jan. 29 to Feb. 5, said OTT content chart website FlixPatrol. On Jan. 28, it climbed on the top spot one day after its release. As of Thursday, “All of Us Are Dead” ranked No. 1 in 58 nations.

As a series of K-dramas such as “Squid Game” and “Hellbound” has taken the world by storm, South Korea is enjoying a higher status as a drama producer. “The one-two punch of “Squid Game” and “All of Us Are Dead” did not come out of nowhere,” wrote Deadline. It pointed out that U.S. viewership jumped more than 200 percent between 2019 and 2021 with an interest in K-dramas growing across the United States.

The magazine described that South Korea became the first country to have multiple non-English language series conquer Netflix’s U.S. daily Top 10 chart. “South Korea has become such a massive force in entertainment that it may prove to be perennially irresistible,” commented Screen Rant, another U.S. movie news magazine.


Seong-Taek Jeong neone@donga.com